What I like about college basketball is that it's much more "democratic" than college football or baseball. Schools with no budget can field a pretty good team because you only need a handful of good players.

Exactly. This is also why I say conference doesn't matter in college basketball. A school like this can make a run in the tournament.

I'm not arguing that being tested like you are in the B1G isn't beneficial. What I'm saying is that small school teams at least have a chance to compete for a championship unlike in college football.

Eh, to say it doesn't matter is misleading. It matters slightly less than other sports, specifically football.

A team in a big conference has a significantly higher probability of competing for a national championship than a team in a small conference. So it still does matter a good deal, your fate just isn't set in stone or you aren't asked to do the impossible if you are Butler or Murray State.

Both teams will make it because of their early season resume, but honestly, the loser should just be punished for how crappy each of them have played lately. It's clear neither is the team they were during the first half of the season.

If the winner goes one and done in the BTT, it would be the poster child for backing into the tournament. Not to mention Minnesota is almost as bad as DePaul at playing on the road vs. any team with a pulse.

All that aside, I have Minnesota winning as long as Illinois doesn't have one of their fluke games where they shoot 90% from 3. If they aren't making their 3s, Illinois is terrible and Minnesota should easily just pound it inside every possession.

The committee should really re-consider using the last 10 games as criteria in extreme cases, such as Minnesota. What a hilarious team, and this is coming from a fan of a team that shouldn't have fielded a basketball team for about 5 years.

The committee should really re-consider using the last 10 games as criteria in extreme cases, such as Minnesota. What a hilarious team, and this is coming from a fan of a team that shouldn't have fielded a basketball team for about 5 years.

Minnesota played well out of conference, but they're nowhere near the same team; they've moved back in caliber play. They've lost 11 of their last 16 games and that's terrible, especially considering they didn't win a road/neutral site game in that stretch.